What is Betras up to?

Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras (“Moth Man” to a veteran journalist who has seen him drawn to a television camera like a moth to a flame) wasn’t about to let the Washington Post story go unnoticed. Shortly after the story appeared on the Post’s website, Betras began touting it. He undoubtedly accessed his “Contacts” directory on his cellphone and went down the list hitting “Call.”

This writer muted the incoming signal from the party chairman – and did not respond.

However, a glance at the Post piece shows why Betras was so eager to draw attention to it: He is featured prominently and quoted extensively. It carried this headline: “Democrats are still ignoring the people who could have helped them defeat Trump, Ohio party leaders say.”

The reporter, William Wan, used Youngstown as his point of reference and included several pictures in the story, including one of Betras sitting on a couch in his office feigning introspection.

But there also was a picture taken inside the Democratic Party headquarters that may have caused the party chairman heartburn. It shows him and several people sitting and talking. In the center of the group is William Blanchard, who is involved in some way in the election campaign of Atty. Anthony Sertick.

Sertick, the magistrate in Youngstown Municipal Court, is seeking the Democratic Party nomination for municipal judge in the May 2 primary. Also seeking the nomination is Atty. Carla Baldwin, magistrate in Mahoning County Juvenile Court.

The picture also shows Leo Jennings III.

Sordid history

Regular readers of The Vindicator will be familiar with Jennings’ name, given all the negative publicity surrounding his tenure a while ago as a member of then Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann’s staff. Dann, a resident of the Mahoning Valley at the time, resigned May 14, 2008, under pressure of being accused of running an unprofessional office filled with cronyism and inappropriate sexual behavior.

Extensive investigations into Dann’s time as AG showed that he, Jennings, who was the communications director, and another Valley resident, Anthony Gutierrez, a member of the staff, shared a condo in Columbus.

The behavior of the trio was well documented and became the stuff of extensive reporting and frat-house humor.

A search of The Vindicator’s archives will jog the memory as to the extent to which the Mahoning Valley trio abused the power that came with their positions in state government. Their behavior served to reinforce the statewide belief that this region is a breeding ground for political misfits and public corruption.

As for Blanchard, his involvement in Magistrate Sertick’s campaign brings to mind an incident that occurred when he was a Youngstown police detective – and a friend of then Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Patrick V. Kerrigan.

In 1994, Judge Kerrigan crashed his car and was subsequently convicted of drunken driving. The car was impounded and taken to Utsinger’s Towing. Shortly thereafter, Blanchard went to Utsinger’s, scaled a fence and searched the vehicle for marijuana, according to police records.

James Smith, who was Kerrigan’s bailiff at the time, accompanied Blanchard on the secret mission.

The detective received a 10-day suspension for conduct unbecoming an officer.

Let’s pause now and listen ... to the screeching from Democratic Chairman Betras over his parade being rained on by this writer bringing up incidents that occurred so long ago.

So here’s a pat on the back for Betras: His postmortem of the November presidential election was brilliant. (A truck load of Washington Posts should be pulling up to his house any minute now.)

Betras’ analysis of the election is not new. He has spent the past five months ranting and raving about how the Ohio and national Democratic parties ignored his warnings that Democrat Hillary Clinton was headed for defeat at the hands of Republican Donald Trump.

Betras argued in the months leading up to the election that the Clinton campaign was failing to connect with white, blue-collar workers in heavily Democratic regions like the Mahoning Valley. These voters were deeply rooted in the Democratic Party, but were fleeing to support Trump, an unconventional, nonestablishment Republican.

Betras also told the Post that national Democratic leaders continue to be in denial about the direction of the party.

“It doesn’t matter how much we scream and holler about jobs and the economy at the local level. Our national leaders still don’t get it,” the chairman told reporter Wan. “While Trump is talking about trade and jobs, they’re still obsessing about which bathrooms people should be allowed to go into.”

While it is true that Betras loves to see his name in print and his mug on television, there’s more going on here than his desire for political vindication.

After the election, he crossed swords with Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper over the contention of the Clinton campaign and state party officials that Clinton’s failure to secure the necessary margin of victory in Mahoning County was one of the main reasons she lost in Ohio.

Betras countered that individuals not from this area ran the campaign in the Valley and largely ignored his recommendation to aggressively court blue-collar workers.

Betras does not take kindly to being called out publicly, and in the true traditional of Valley politicians he holds grudges.

Thus the question: Is Betras going to seek the state party chairmanship next year? He’s sure behaving like someone on a mission.